The First Days: Karkand City
by Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabar
Summary: Chronicling a Marine and his squads adventure in the early days of WWIII, as part of the the allied force tasked with taking the key city of Karkand from the Middle Eastern Coalition. Based on the "Strike @ Karkand" map from BF2.


**In June of 2010, the world plunged into a war, the scope and scale of which had not been seen in the 50 years previous.** It started from a multitude of reasons and events, including poor foreign policy judgment by a recently-elected US president and a general rise of extremism and nationalism in several Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The war pitted a coalition of the United States, Canada and the European Union against the People's Republic of China and an impromptu alliance of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan (which had fallen back to the Taliban after the withdrawal of the ISAF the prior year), and Pakistan (which fell to Islamic extremists following the West's abandonment of Afghanistan). Below is a "brief" timeline of the first days of World War III...

01/20/09: Barack Obama is elected POTUS after a pitched battle with Senator John McCain (who lost by a mere 2.7 margin). With him, he brings a new wave of foreign policy decisions such as the near complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, the removal of key figures from the Department of Defense and the CIA, and a general financial gutting of America's national security budget.  
07/21/09: a new Taliban offense in southern Afghanistan forces allied peacekeepers farther and farther north, leaving much of the country in ruins.

08/22/09: egged on by Taliban victories against the undermanned and under-funded ISAF in Afghanistan, several Islamic extremists movements in Pakistan unite and assassinate Musharraf and overthrowing the Pakistani government. However, certain political and military figures seen as sympathetic to the Islamist cause are kept in power and used to stabilize the provisional government.  
12/16/09: following a hotly-debated recall election, the Turkish government is effectively taken over by Islamic extremists, who are quick to build ties with the new Pakistani government and provide tremendous amounts of aid to the advancing Taliban forces in Afghanistan, while also making damn sure to give up their seat at NATO.

01/07/10: the last ISAF forces are evacuated as the Taliban takes what was left of free Afghanistan. Former president Hamid Karzai barely escapes to safety in American hands, who place him and his remaining family members in the witness protection program.  
01/31/10: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces a new military alliance with Turkey, further upsetting the political scale in the Middle East. It is also revealed by British intelligent services that the Iranians had indeed been secretly funding and equipping insurgents to take over Iraq from its lawful, Western-backed government.

02/16/10: the Iraqi capital of Baghdad is captured by Iranian-backed insurgent forces, who are quick to arrest and publicly execute the elected prime minister, Hassan al-Sharani.  
03/26/10: the newly-formed Islamic Republic of Arabistan declares independence from the remaining "free zones" in Iraq, essentially the large western province of Al-Anbar.

05/30/10: Turkey, Iran, Arabistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan declare themselves the United Islamic Republic. Their combined military is known as the Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC) to Westerners.  
06/05/10: Syria announces its allegiance to the United Islamic Republic (UIR from here on).

06/11/10: The MEC launches airstrikes against several Israeli military facilities, prompting a small but swift response from the IDF. Israeli bombs began falling on Damascus, Iskenderun and Baghdad, and a universal draft is immediately instituted as the UDF begins full-scale mobilization. Israeli president Hirsch pleas to the West for military aid.  
06/13/10: A force of approximately 35,000 MEC ground troops begins an advance on Israel's northern and eastern borders. Interestingly, Lebanon remains neutral in the fray.

06/14/10: MEC forces charge into the Israeli city of Haifa at dawn. By nightfall the city is in ruins and the IDF defenders, despite their valiant efforts, have been routed. Also that day, the Obama administration and the UN harshly criticize the UIR's aggression and begin enforcing economic sanctions (and in the US's case, a total trade embargo) with the UIR and its associates.  
06/21/10: by June 21st, the IDF has been almost completely wiped out and the Israeli capital and holy city of Jerusalem is put under an intense siege that lasts for months. In response, the Obama administration, in conjunction with Canada, begins mobilizing the US and Canadian militaries. USAF chief of staff General Rucker launches B-1and B-52 strikes against major MEC installations and supply lines in an effort to slow the MEC's advance, with is now being diverted up through Turkey and headed towards the Balkans.

06/25/10: The Arab nations of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt pledge allegiance to the West as the UIR begins to further divert its troops south in an attempt to capture the Arabian Peninsula's vast oil fields before the US military can be fully committed to the fight.  
07/03/10: The first US and Canadian ground forces arrive in Egypt, three American divisions and a Canadian infantry regiment. The allied forces quickly move to link up with a few of the IDF units who escaped to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Later that day, NATO announces it will begin a major bombing campaign to help slow MEC forces and to aid the US and Canadian troops fighting on the ground.

07/04:10: On America's 234th birthday, the first ground battle between US and MEC forces begins. A brigade-sized unit of mechanized infantry comes into contact with a 4,000-strong MEC force. The battle is fought over a village in the Egyptian desert, whose inhabitants had previously fled. The battle rages for 38 hours before US forces are barely able to push back the MEC troops and take control of the flaming heap of rubble that used to be a village of 6,000. US casualties are 55 KIA, 162 WIA, and 2 MIA presumed as POWs. MEC casualties are unknown aside from 27 recovered bodies and 4 taken prisoner. The first battle of WWIII is won by the allies, but at a great cost to the men and women of 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division...

**The war raged on for months and months** before the Chinese communists joined on the side of the UIR. In response, the US's allies in the region (Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, et al) declare war on China, opening up a second front to the war, on November 21st, 2010. But I digress... so, let my give you a little more background on my own personal war story... My name is Robert Blackwell. I am a retired staff sergeant of the US Marines. I was born on March 1st, 1989, to a middle-class family in suburban southern California. I joined the Marines immediately after I finished high school and excelled in boot camp, ending up as my company's honor graduate. I eventually found myself in special operations. I was a young corporal stationed at Camp Pendleton when the war broke out. My unit was among the first deployed to the Middle East at the start of the war. We mostly provided a reconnaissance role, going behind the lines and gathering information on the enemy that the GPS satellites couldn't, and occasionally performing hit-and-run raids and the like. Our first major combat operation was in the city of Karkand, somewhere in what used to be Iraq. My story, _our_ story, the story of the 3rd Marine Special Reconnaissance Battalion... is this:

**Karkand.** A city of 400,000, sitting on the banks of a major river in Arabistan. The eastern sector of the city was home to a garrison of about 1,500 MEC troops. The city's riverside docks provided an excellent trade route running north into the upper reaches of the region, and in addition, there is also a large train station and railroad that runs through the city east-west, an excellent supply line to be used by whatever army held the scorched desert city. Strategically as well as literally, the city of Karkand was at an important crossroads. It was for this reason that the powers that be, in my case Col. John Martin (CO of the 5th Marine Regiment) and LtCol. Raul Estrada (my battalion CO), decided to take the city back from the MEC. And my unit, the 3rd MSRB, was chosen to spearhead the assault. Following us would be the men of the legendary 5th Marines, without support provided by Canadian and Kuwaiti medical and engineer units. The plan was titled _Operation Urgent Surge_, and involved approximately 1,600 Marines charging headlong into a city chock full of entrenched MEC infantry, still high and mighty feeling from the early victories. Even though we had them outnumbered, we were going to have a tough fight, but the bad guys would have it even harder.

**It was early November 2010, just weeks before the Chinese entered the war.** I was 21 year-old Cpl. Robby Blackwell, a team leader in 2nd Platoon, E Company, 3rd MSRB. Under my command were LCpl. Mark Savage, LCpl. Blake Freeman, and Pfc. Justin Graves. Our platoon was charged with heading into the city from the southeast, somewhat parallel to the river, and gouging through the MEC's weak spot in their defenses, providing a distraction for the MEC to focus on eliminating while the bulk of our forces would hold back for a few hours and then smash forward into the MEC's barricades head-on. Once we'd punched through and the rest of our guys had gotten a foothold in their AO, we would fight our way over to them, likely with little if any air support to aid us, and link-up with the 1/5 Marines who were clawing into the city center. The task was to be incredibly difficult to pull off, but what the hell did that matter, we were US Marines, no one can stop us. As much shit as I've seen go down, as many friends as I've seen get blown apart by RPGs, as many Middle Eastern bastards I've pumped lead into, hahaha... I still believe that macho BS they show on the recruiting commercials. That's why it's with great sadness that I tell this story to you as a plain-clothed civilian, no longer serving proudly alongside the finest men America has had to offer. Now, let's get moving along into our story, before I get too old and my memory gets fuzzy...

* * *

The idea for this kinda popped into my head after I played a really good match in Strike at Karkand in BF2. It's my favorite map so I figure, "why not write something about it?" I don't believe I've seen it done here before. I'll try to keep it updated when I have the time. If it was boring, don't worry, this is just the set-up, there'll be plenty of action when I get down and dirty into the assault on the city. I don't expect it to be particularly gory, though, and there won't be any sexytime, so I'll keep it PG-13 unless I feel the need to change it. Also, folks, gimme some reviews to work with please, I wanna know what I can do to improve. Feel free to hit me up with ideas if you have any, as well. As always, thank you for reading...


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